Who Controls Your Property: You or the Utility?

Tennessee HB 796: A Common-Sense Fix to Utility Contracting Monopolies

Most Tennesseans are shocked when they discover this: even on your own property, many utilities insist you use “their” chosen contractors to install critical infrastructure—sometimes at inflated prices, on their schedule, and with little transparency. You pay the bill, but you don’t get a real say.

Tennessee House Bill 0796 changes that. It’s a simple, common-sense reform: it lets utility customers choose their own qualified contractors to install utility infrastructure on their property, while still allowing utilities to set reasonable standards to protect safety and system reliability.

In plain terms, if you’re building a new home, expanding a business, or upgrading service to a farm, HB 0796 means you won’t be locked into a monopoly installer chosen by the utility. You can seek competitive bids, choose who you trust, and manage your own project timeline—just like you already do with electricians, plumbers, roofers, and builders.

Utilities retain the authority they actually need: they can establish reasonable specifications for the work. That means they can still require that lines, meters, pipes, and other infrastructure meet technical standards, be safely installed, and be compatible with their systems. The bill does *not* let just anyone slap a line in the ground however they please. It simply separates “who does the work” from “what standards the work must meet.”

That distinction matters for liberty and for your wallet.

When a utility can dictate both the standards and the contractor, customers effectively lose all leverage. Imagine if your local building inspector could also force you to hire his preferred construction company. Costs would climb, service would lag, and quality might suffer because there’s no competitive pressure. Utility-directed contracting works much the same way.

By opening the door to competition, HB 796 encourages lower prices and better service. A small business owner trying to connect a new workshop can shop around instead of accepting a single, take-it-or-leave-it quote. A young family building a first home can work with a contractor they already trust, coordinating utility installation with the rest of the construction, instead of waiting weeks for a slot on the utility’s schedule. A farmer extending service to a barn can hire a local crew that understands the land and the layout.

This is, at its core, a property rights issue. If infrastructure is being installed on your land, you should have a meaningful say in who performs that work. HB 0796 respects that basic principle, without sacrificing the safety and reliability that all Tennesseans depend on.

It’s also a limited-government reform. Public utilities already exercise enormous power as government-granted monopolies over essential services. Allowing them to control not just the service, but also who gets hired to install infrastructure on private property, extends that monopoly too far. HB 796 draws an appropriate line: utilities set the rules of the road; customers choose who drives the car.

Lawmakers should pass HB 796, and Tennesseans should urge them to do so. Contact your state representative and senator, and tell them you support restoring choice, competition, and property rights in our utility system. It’s your land, your money, and your infrastructure. You deserve the freedom to choose.